Emma’s story: eight year old battling MITO honored as captain for Coronado

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Emma Boggs was honored in Coronado’s competition against Andress Friday night, where she participated as a captain in the coin toss ahead of the game in hopes to raise awareness surrounding MITO.

Players, coaches and fans could be seen wearing green during the game in support of Emma.

“Her father [Emma’s father] and I played football at UTEP together so we decided over the summer we wanted to honor her in some way,” said Coronado head coach Mike Pry. “We decided to honor her during this particular game so I called Coach Taylor over at Andress and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to dedicate this game to her,’ and he was in. We ordered green socks and the student section is going to be greened out so we made that the theme for the night. I thought it’d be a really good platform to honor her and draw some awareness to her disease.”

“This means a lot to us, especially considering she can’t participate in sports,” said Emma’s father Jacob. “So in a way, this also gives her this opportunity to do so. It’s so neat – I owe it all to God, the community and coach Pry.”

The eight year old was diagnosed with Leigh’s syndrome at 22-months, a mitochondrial disease that essentially attacks the powerhouse of the body’s cells. This has forced Emma to become wheel chair bound, causing trouble with her movements as well as speaking. But one thing she hasn’t lost – is her humor and personality.

The soon to be nine year old is thriving and continues to keep hope as does her family in finding a cure. Her parents, Courtney and Jacob Boggs, act as both her primary caregivers and advocates. The two have since launched a non-profit to help continue medical research evolve surrounding mitochondrial disease and are now asking for the communities help.

“Mitochondria produces 90% of your body’s energy, so without mitochondria, you’re really nothing,” said Jacob. “When we first were told about this disease, about age two, we told we were told that she has a maximum of ten years old. She’s going to turn nine this month and has shown no signs of her leaving Earth any time soon. We praise God every day and we believe in her healing, we believe she’s going to be healed. But in the meantime, we’re going to do what we can on earth so my wife and I started a nonprofit organization with another family called, ‘Cure MITO Foundation.’ We have researchers working on it based out in Dallas and the research is there, but we need we need funds right now. That’s what we’re seeking, but nobody knows about it. So, we’re trying to create as much awareness as possible.”

For more information surrounding Emma’s story, Leighs syndrome and MITO: https://www.curemito.org/ .

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